[Foundation-l] Draft charter of the Wikimedia Chapters Association

[Thomas Morton]

Some further comments, having read the related pages in more depth:

- To what legal body will the "duties" be paid?

- What is the purpose of duties exactly (there seems no obvious use for
them by the council)?

As I can make out it is to set up committees, groups and projects and
chapter events - this seems worryingly like a modern government.
Inefficient and wasteful. Ideally we should use the current model - where
the more flush chapters utilise their funds to pay for international
events. This works (IMO) surprisingly well, even if it is a little chaotic.

I think any monetary consideration needs to be scrapped because it is a
pure minefield; unless anyone can lay out clearly what unique use it could
be put to...

- Having read the draft most seems (and I don't want to be harsh but I may
be) totally unnecessary and pointless. A while ago I was part of a group
that played a game called Nation States (you may have heard of it) which
was basically a massive RPG based around government. A group of use spent a
very long time building a brilliant charter and slick government... on
paper it looked effective, in practice it wasn't all that robust, and
largely turned political. Governments almost always do this - and so you
should avoid it as much as you can!

FWIW a lot of my concerns are addressed in Tango's draft (
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chapters_Council/Draft_charter) which for me
demonstrates a deep understanding of both the legal and moral issues
involved in such a body. If we must have a beurocracy then this is a much
lighter and more detailed approach - although I would recommend shortening
the terms, demanding *all* communication in public and provide more options
for wider chapter input.


Finally; I think the key consideration *not* addressed in any of these
proposals is independence from the WMF - both in online and offline. It
would be interesting to see the thoughts on that.

Tom